A moment to reflect on dogs behavior

Note: The following contents are based on our personal encounters and opinions.

Imagine one fine day, you decide to bring your dog out to enjoy, you sit down in the park and then saw a beautiful dog walking towards you. You and your dog decided to approach the beautiful dog, then suddenly it starts to snap at you, bark and hump your dog. Would you, the owner of the beautiful dog feel embarrassed for your dog? Truth is, most people don't. They find their dogs cute, and thus anything that the pet does is considered cute. Which is why in my opinion, i find that 80% of Singaporeans here do not support, or should i say hate to train their dogs the "Cesar way". Why? Imagine you are very tired from work, you come home and just wish to have a peaceful evening. No one would want to lecture their dogs and teach them where to pee or not to bark after a tired day. One would rather pet their dog and cuddle them and go to sleep. Most people also feel that dogs are human and we should use human ways to teach a dog. But have you ever think on the dog's point of view? The dog does not understand your long story, the dog does not know that you need to go to work, the dog does not know that you are using "human interaction" on it. These humane actions are meant to satisfy us humans alone, not the dog. The dog needs something that is far more simple, the dog needs 1-2 simple words like "No, Sit Down", not long sentences like "Please do not do this, can you sit down for me". Cesar Millan is just someone that is on a television show, other than him there are tons of trainers around the world that use methods similar to him, it is not him alone that made all these training methods up. Only these people can help dogs who are meant to be put down, i believe you cannot save those dogs with treats and tell them not to tear you up. I would say that between me and my dog is a biscuit, if i give half of the biscuit to my dog, she will eat half of it. If i give her the whole biscuit, she will eat everything, she will not eat half and leave the other half to me. This biscuit you hold will determine how good or badly your dog will behave on the long run.

We have been using Cesar's method on Amber and it is doing very well although some people hate it when they see me teaching Amber, people make aching faces when they see me say "NO" harshly, people scream when they see me grab Amber by the scruff of neck, people try to correct me when i hold the leash firmly when Amber tries to paw strangers. To me, these people are not dog lovers, dog lovers would first understand the behavior of dogs and how their species thrive in the wild. Dog lovers should understand that the mother always grab their child by the scruff of the neck for transport and lecturing purposes. It does not cause pain nor permanent damage, as you can just see by looking at Amber. Amber is not fearful, neither is she dominant or aggressive. Everyone who sees her says that she is a well behaved dog, not to us because we still know that she has problem that we are still trying to teach her, she is only 6 months old and we do have limits. But if we compare her to other dogs outside, she has already won by a big margin, just by not barking. Most people think that Amber is a good dog because she was born that way, if you have watched some of my videos on youtube, Amber WAS not a well behaved dog. She loved to bark, she hates wearing clothes and shoes, she loved to bite and she hated the leash and pulled it at first. Well people feel their dogs do not behave because they are born like that, this is not true, it is us owners who spoils them. If you keep your dogs at home 24/7 there is absolutely no problem except for barking and neighbors complaining. But if you were to bring your untrained dog out, you are not only exposing dangers to your dog, but also every other people, animals and things out there. People, dogs, cars, children you name it, this is also the reason why there are a number of people who are dog haters, it is because us owners. We don't like to leash our dogs, we don't want to pick up poop left by our dog, we don't want to teach our dog not to bark, worst still we let our dog chase other people and sometimes bite them. Then we complain why many places don't allow dog and why people give weird faces when they see our dogs.

  1. does your dog bark unnecessarily?
  2. does your dog bite?
  3. does your dog sleep on your bed whenever it wants?
  4. does your dog growl at others?
  5. does your dog jump up on you?
  6. does your dog chase anything that moves?
  7. does your dog attempt to escape whenever the door is open?
  8. is your dog guarding you all day long?
  9. is your dog afraid of other dogs?
10. will your dog come back to you whenever you call?
11. does your dog hump other dogs?

If any of the above is yes, it probably means that your dog needs more training. We do admit Amber is currently having problem with number 5, 6 and 10 but the good thing is that we acknowledge we will keep training her in that particular area. We hope you've enjoyed this post, do enjoy the video below.